Sunday, September 12, 2004

The 15 September 2004 edition of Swa Magazine listed me as one of maestro in specific field. In my case, they put me under IT security expert. Wow! I didn't know this until somebody told me to buy the magazine. (Here's the page scanned from the magazine.)

I was also awarded IGOS award. IGOS is "Indonesia Goes Open Source," a movement lead by Research and Technology Ministry in Indonesia. I didn't go to the celebration since I was sick at that time. I am not sure whay I was awarded though. I thought my contribution to the open source community is still minimal.

New schoolyear has been started. It's time to teach classes. I am teaching two classes; Introduction to Programming (with Object Oriented) and System Security (grad course). Meanwhile, I've got new students working on their theses.

On the University R&D side, my term as the Director of IT Research has ended. I am glad. I was not too happy with the position since I thought I was given a "body" but not "hands and feet" to move around. I had some ideas but could not execute them. Now, I have to think about IT research direction and perhaps build a real IT research center. But I need resources to do so. I am not sure if I could get it from my university. Perhaps in other university? Or even private (industrial) research center? (As a side note, I was invited to apply for a Dean of Computer Scince position in a large university. I was honored, but I had to decline since I still have many things to do.)

On the business side, security business is picking up. My company (INDOCISC) has been busy doing some consulting projects. So busy so that we even had to turn down new clients! I guess, you have to be focus and master the field to be considered a real player. Some people even asked us if we want to do some regional works (Malaysia, Singapore, Brunai, Hongkong, etc.). To be frankly, we are not ready. We have the skill. It's just we have limited human resources. (I wrote a piece a while ago about growing up. Our company has to grow, but we are worried that we loose control, culture, and the fun associated with the company. We'll see how it goes.)